- Published
Brazilian Senator Flávio Bolsonaro has flown to Miami after losing the country's presidential election on Sunday.
His arrival in Florida ends days of confusion over his whereabouts, after he was reported to have travelled to Argentina, and then prematurely reported to have already entered the US on Tuesday.
The US has said it would grant visas to Bolsonaro and his family, who travelled with him. Brazil cancelled his passport, after he failed to surrender it to authorities, due to an ongoing criminal investigation. He has denied any wrongdoing.
Newly reelected President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has criticised the departure, saying "those who have nothing to hide have nothing to fear".
Speculation about Bolsonaro's whereabouts was first triggered by a report on an Argentine news site, which claimed that he had crossed the land border between Brazil and Argentina and then boarded a private plane en route to the US.
Brazilian police took the rumours seriously. Early on Tuesday, they checked border crossings but found no evidence that Bolsonaro had left the country, and Argentine officials said they had no reports of him crossing.
For a little while, it seemed like Bolsonaro may just be keeping an uncharacteristically low profile after being unexpectedly beaten by his left-wing rival in the presidential run-off vote on Sunday.
When he failed to surrender his passports in time to meet a 24-hour deadline, Brazilian authorities cancelled the documents and ordered police to make checks at border posts.
With Bolsonaro's lawyers saying they did not know where he was, speculation quickly grew again that he might have left the country.
Then, several sources told the BBC and other broadcasters he was on his way to the US.
The US State Department confirmed it would issue him and his family with visas to enter the US.
There were even reports he had landed already. BBC Brasil and BBC Mundo were informed by three people close to the Bolsonaro that the senator had arrived in the US.
A cousin, who is close to Flávio Bolsonaro and his younger brother Eduardo, told BBC Brasil the defeated right-wing candidate had arrived in Miami.
Another close aide to Eduardo Bolsonaro told BBC Mundo that Flávio was with his younger brother in Miami.
Neither Flávio nor Eduardo Bolsonaro could be reached directly for comment at the time.
Hours later, however, Argentine migration authorities posted a tweet saying that Bolsonaro, his wife, and two daughters had only just crossed into Argentina over land on Tuesday night local time.
At around the same time, US President Donald Trump told reports who quizzed him over the matter: "I heard he was in Argentina."
Flight tracking data verified by the BBC suggested Bolsonaro and his family departed from Puerto Iguazú in Argentina at 12:18 local time (03:18 GMT) on Wednesday to head to Guayaquil in Ecuador.
After a brief stop, the same private jet carried them to Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport, where the Bolsonaro family was pictured getting off it just before 09:30 local time (13:30 GMT).
Photographers, who had been waiting for his arrival to finally put an end to the speculations about his whereabouts swarmed around him as he left the airport in Miami, while his team tried to cover him with umbrellas to protect his privacy.
Flávio Bolsonaro is not the first member of his family to travel to the United States.
Jair Bolsonaro, his father, also left Brazil for Florida in December 2022 before his successor, President Lula, was inaugurated.
He was still in the US when his supporters stormed Brazil's government buildings and Supreme Court on 8 January. He later used his absence as part of his defence in his coup trial, which led to a conviction and 27-year sentence.
Eduardo Bolsonaro, meanwhile, has been living in Texas after taking leave from Brazil's Congress. While in the US, he lobbied officials there in an attempt to influence the coup trial of his father, which led to the US imposing punitive tariffs on Brazil and sanctions on key officials.
He was convicted in absentia over this by Brazil's highest court earlier this year.
It is not yet clear what Flávio Bolsonaro's ultimate destination will be nor how long he plans to stay in the US.
He is the subject of two investigations currently pending before Brazil's Supreme Federal Court.
One regarding possible irregularities in the transfer of nearly $70m (£53m) from private bank Banco Master to the film Dark Horse – a biopic about his father.
The second investigation relates to alleged money laundering, both of which Bolsonaro denies.
He is set to lose his parliamentary immunity on 31 January, when his eight-year Senate term ends.
- Published1 day ago
- Published1 day ago